RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport passengers is very concerned that the failure to drive the bus network in principle as proposed properly by TransLink, will now lead to a stalemate to sort out the fare system for TransLink south-east Queensland (1, 2).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"An important premise of the TransLink bus review was that it was to be revenue neutral, because the better overall frequency and increased number of services and frequent routes particularly in the high demand period between 7am to 7pm, the improved legibility and simplification, as well as better integration with rail would have lead to increased patronage and fare box. This would have supported the intent to address the high cost of fares in south-east Queensland."

"The vacillation by the Minister for Transport and Main Roads with respect to the bus review has now put reform of the fares at serious risk. The Brisbane City Council bus review is not likely to achieve the same results. They have created a bus system that is broken, are in a state of denial and are struggling to see the need to adopt best practise public transport planning principles. They are locked into a 1970s high cost, poor frequency, isolated, inefficient direct service network model."

"We call on a committment by the Minister to the public of south-east Queensland that the fare review process is to continue."

"We do not accept that the rest of south-east Queensland should suffer public transport mediocrity because of the intransigence and incompetence of Brisbane City Council with respect to the failure to understand that their bus system is broken, and their obvious lack of understanding of the steps needed to position it for a sustainable transport future!"

Got my signature, at $4300 per year for a service that (Especially after the timetable review) is less than convenient - isn't right.

We're switching to carpooling after Australia day.

If you ring up the Minister for transport, one of his aids will tell you that labor was doing 15% and we're better off with their 7.5%.

I thought they were doing 15% for 4 years?Didn't they get through 3 rises before being turfed?Doesn't that make this our 5th year of massive price rises (I sure as hell haven't received a 7.5% pay rise)

If I'm right then the rises look something like this+15%, +15%, +15%, +7.5%, +7.5%

this results in us paying more than if they'd stuck with Labours plan of+15%, +15%, +15%, +15%

Negative people... have a problem for every solution.Posts are commentary and are not necessarily endorsed by RAIL Back on Track or its members. Not affiliated with, paid by or in conspiracy with MTR/Metro.

Also the loss of periodicals has further magnified the cost increases for punters. Hard to factor that in .. but in some cases adds over a 100% or more ... this is another reason why the public has had it ..

My whole public transport 'career' started with the what I then thought were savage fare increases back in 2008, when the go card was first introduced.I prepared a table showing the increases for all zones and had it published in mX as an advertisement (cost was almost $1500 from memory).

From a post of mine from February 2008"Helensvale ( Zone 12 ) cops a 14.29% hike and Nerang - Robina ( Zones 13 + ) receive a 23.08% riseSadly they suffer the same imposts as Sunshine Coast commuters for a 5 day week ( 10 trips )."

It showed increases ranging up to just over 23% from Glass House Mountains station zone onwards and shocked a lot of people - so much so that the increases proposed never eventuated.

Anyway, I wonder what the fares would be today based upon just CPI increases since then ... would make for an interesting comparison.

My whole public transport 'career' started with the what I then thought were savage fare increases back in 2008, when the go card was first introduced.I prepared a table showing the increases for all zones and had it published in mX as an advertisement (cost was almost $1500 from memory).

From a post of mine from February 2008"Helensvale ( Zone 12 ) cops a 14.29% hike and Nerang - Robina ( Zones 13 + ) receive a 23.08% riseSadly they suffer the same imposts as Sunshine Coast commuters for a 5 day week ( 10 trips )."

It showed increases ranging up to just over 23% from Glass House Mountains station zone onwards and shocked a lot of people - so much so that the increases proposed never eventuated.

Anyway, I wonder what the fares would be today based upon just CPI increases since then ... would make for an interesting comparison.

Pity the only 5% reduction in fares in 2015 doesn't makes up for the very poor service that Translink is allowed to continue to give the travelling public including gocard machines not working, call centre giving out wrong information or information they wanted to give rather then what the caller wanted, journey planner not working or giving out silly suggestion like catch a bus and stay on for 2 minutes etc etc